X-Men: Age of Revelation - Overture

X-Men: Age of Revelation

by Jed MacKay, Stephanie Phillips, Justina Ireland

X years later, the heir of Apocalypse reigns!

Former New Mutant Doug Ramsey played a vital role as the voice of Krakoa. In the wake of its fall, he became the heir of Apocalypse. Then Cyclops’ X-Men welcomed him into their ranks. And that’s where it all went wrong! As Revelation, Doug is tasked with ensuring that only the fit survive — and only mutants are fit to survive! X years later, he and his Choristers hold power in the Revelation Territories — and the world around them is transformed! The remnants of the X-Men enact a desperate scheme to reshape the status quo, and the help of an unexpected ally may turn the tables! What has become of Emma Frost and Tony Stark? After 3K’s devastating terrorist attack cost them everything, the Heartless Queen returns to what remains of her past. But secrets hide in the ruins of New York, and the Hellfire Club has a dangerous new leader! Why has Laura Kinney abandoned the legacy of Wolverine and taken on the guise of his bitter enemy, Sabretooth? With the universe crumbling, Binary returns to save what’s left. But power this great always comes with a price. Will the end of everything begin with her? And the biggest question of all: Cloak or Dagger?! Tandy and Tyrone have tied the knot — but their bond has come with a terrible cost. Now they can no longer exist on the same plane at the same time!

COLLECTING: X-Men: Age of Revelation (2025) #0, X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture (2025) #1, Amazing X-Men (2025) #1-3, Binary (2025) #1-3, Cloak or Dagger (2025) #1-3, Iron & Frost (2025) #1-3, Laura Kinney: Sabretooth (2025) #1-3

Written by Jed Mackay, Cavan Scott, Erica Schultz, Stephanie Phillips, Justina Ireland & Cavan Scott
Penciled by Humberto Ramos, Ryan Stegman, Mahmud Asrar, Ruairí Coleman, Valentina Pinto, Giada Belviso & Lorenzo Tammetta

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men

400 pages, Paperback

Published May 5, 2026

Reviews

[Sean Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cloak and Dagger issues save this entire collection.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of three chunky books collecting the entirety of the Age of Revelation, this book, unsurprisingly with a title like Overture, starts off the whole thing.

We get the Age of Revelation #0 and Overture #1 one-shots, which set the scene. Cyclops and Beast are dragged 10 years forward in time to a new timeline where Revelation, the transformed heir of Apocalypse Doug Ramsey, has essentially taken over half of the US, forced humans out, and enslaved or mind-wiped any mutant that disagrees with him. It's a bold premise, different enough from the usual 'awful future' timeline that the X-Men get dragged into, and these two one-shots stage it well. Unsurprising, given that they're both written by X-Men writer Jed MacKay, with art by Humberto Ramos and Ryan Stegman respectively.

Then we're off into a mire of 3 issue mini-series that tie-in and expand the world of Revelation (no, that's the third book, I can't say that yet, damn it).

First up, Amazing X-Men, also by MacKay with art by Mahmud Asrar. You can usually tell which of these tie-in books are the 'important' ones, because they're written by the main writer of the rest of the series, and Amazing X-Men is no exception. It picks up directly from the end of Overture #1, depicting the journey Cyke and Beast take across the US towards hopefully a way home, and ends on a cliffhanger 'Go Read The Other Books' type page. Asrar's art's superb, because he's no stranger to big Marvel books, of course, and this is is a good follow-up to the strong start to the volume.

Next is Binary, by Phoenix writer Stephanie Phillips, with art by Giada Belviso, most recently of Laura Kinney: Wolverine. These four issues focus in on the one town in all of the eastern seaboard that has been spared by the X-Virus, because Jean Grey gave her Phoenix powers to Carol Danvers, who used them to save her hometown. Solid idea, Carol, well done. While Phillips didn't get to write a big Maddie Pryor story in her Phoenix solo series, this is her doing that - thankfully, she doesn't forget that Carol is the main character of the book, so it's another solid entry, if a little segregated from the rest of the world of Revelation (damn it, I did it again!) by the nature of the plot.

Then we have Cloak Or Dagger, by Justina Ireland and Lorenzo Tammetta (though the poor guy can't manage to draw all three issues in totality, so the art takes a bit of a dive in the final issue). The idea here is solid - Cloak and Dagger, now married with a child, can't stay on the same plane of existence for too long or else they start to unravel. They're trying to save civilians from the X-Virus, until they're targeted by Fenris, those two creepy incest twins. Great little story set amongst the backdrop of the larger world, though easily one of the more skippable ones in the grand scheme of things.

Iron Frost, by Cavan Scott and Ruairi Coleman, feels like a book that should have been written by Gerry Duggan since it pulls on threads from his Iron Man run. The relationship between Tony and Emma is meant to be the focus here, but it's only really on display at the beginning and the end. The middle is then some kind of weird commentary on AI and the lack of empathy in machines, but it's mostly just one long fight scene instead. Not great overall, but I like the idea.

And lastly, Erica Schultz and Valentina Pinti give us Laura Kinney: Sabretooth, which feels a lot like Schultz's run on Wolverine just before this - not as good as it could have been. I don't know how many times one character can be mind controlled before she just stops talking to people, honestly. Poor Laura can't catch a break. I did like seeing Gabby and Akihiro as secondary players though, even if the ending's a bit of a downer.

A solid start, though lags a bit in the latter half - given how many series tie into Age of Revelation, they're not all gonna be winners, but there's more good than bad here, and the bad isn't even really bad, it's just...okay.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the 30th anniversary of Age of Apocalypse (an innovative and well executed comic book event if ever there was one) Marvel followed the same formula by pausing all of their ongoing mutant featured series and launching sixteen new, three issue miniseries this time focusing on a future dystopia ruled by former new mutant Doug Ramsey who has weaponized his language powers to conquer the Eastern United States and kill untold millions of people. The concept is cool. I like the concept of weaponized language as a metaphor for our world now as well as elevating a character who was initially killed in the New Mutants because writers couldn’t figure out how to have a character without “fighting powers” incorporated into a team book. The results of the event are mixed. Also, instead of publishing the whole thing as an omnibus the event is divided into three 400ish page trade paperbacks. The end of the event doesn’t feel as rushed as the individual series do as they are forced to race through world building plot and resolution in about 60 pages of comic book and the whole thing is actually a more successful nod to Days of Future Past than Age of Apocalypse for the way it ties back into Jed MacKay’s ongoing X-Men series. Big hunks of this are a real slog and no one really got the message that what was cool about AoA was seeing know characters in new circumstances with different team dynamics. Most of Age of Revelation tears down or kills off character in this potential future rather than build anything new which is why it likely won’t have the legacy of AoA, Morrison’s X-Men run or, god forbid, Krakoa which Marvel seems determined to pretend never happened.
Here’s a quick star breakdown on the one shots and series

Overture series and one shots
X-Men: Age of Revelation ***1/2
X-Men: Age of Revelation Overture ***1/2
Amazing X-Men ***1/2
Binary ** Let’s put Jean Gray in a corner so she can’t fix anything
Cloak or Dagger *** Is there an alternate universe Marvel could dream up where anything good or even just not Shakespeare level tragic happens to Cloak & Dagger
Laura Kinney: Sabretooth *** Really liked the art in this series

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose this is set up as the first volume of the event as it has the first book. I'll say this elsewhere, but the event as a whole is okay, but it probably should have been a story in McKay's ongoing rather than a 16-mini series event. The excess weight sinks the ship. Otherwise there are some good bits in the whole thing.

Not the best Age of Apocalypse nod, but also not the worst.

Overture - The opening is fine. Intended to suck you in, it does a satisfactory job of introducing the world, but some of the bits feel done to death, and nothing feels enthralling.

Amazing X-Men - This and McKay's Revelation tell the most important stories of the series. There is an extent to which the brevity leads to a bit of "what even happened" but I could appreciate some of the character moments.

Binary - Doesn't do enough with Carol or Jean to make this worthwhile.

Cloak or Dagger - The new status for Cloak and Dagger is an interesting hook that ultimately proves to have no barb.

Iron & Frost - I wanted to meh this, but there were some notes of potency. This also hints at a lasting effect which is rare for these alt future stories.

Laura Kinney: Sabretooth - I can comfortably meh this one. Maybe if I was reading Laura's ongoing I would have cared more. But then again there's a reason I am not reading Laura's ongoing...

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, not great. I may just be getting tired of the future X-Men stories at this point. There's been so many. You know they are never going to come to pass. This one has Doug Ramsey taking over mutantkind as Apocalypse's heir. Then there's just a bunch of 3 issue stories, none of which have any depth as they are only 3 issues. Most of the art is REALLY suspect as well. That's one of the largest differences you see between DC and Marvel these days. DC apparently pays a living wage while Marvel must pay in Subway coupons or something because I haven't heard of 75% of their artists and there is a reason why. They aren't ready for the big time yet.

[Andres Pasten · Rating 2 out of 5]

mal ejecutada pero buena idea

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.3 stars

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75
The worst thing from X-Men and Marvel I can remember.

[Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

This event has been a blast